(We) can do better

Good evening. Earlier this evening, earlier today in a courthouse in Saipan, we had a hearing that brought to a close a prosecution that never should have been brought.

Today, a press release from a 'Monash Expert' came across my desk, entitled, "Monash expert: Julian Assange plea deal." It cited Associate Professor, Johan Lidberg, Head of Journalism, School of Media Film and Journalism.  My attention was caught by a statement a few sentences down, where the associate professor, said, "Assange's legacy is complex.

Julian Assange - Out of Belmarsh, but still not home 'free,' until he really is.  Maybe Thursday?

Click on the image to read Report No. 39.

You are invited to this informative seminar hosted by Proudly Frankston, which is supported by various community groups who are active in planning and environmental issues – most notably the recent campaign to ‘Stop the Great Wall of Frankston’.

If you haven't come across Sean Foo before, you are in for a treat. His economic, politically focused analyses, are usually brilliant. He approaches the world with an open mind and seems able to grasp a big picture. His take on Marine Le Pen's National Rally, and the clips he illustrates her policies with, are extremely well-chosen. It is also worth reading the comments under his video.

Sustainable Population Australia (SPA) congratulates Australians for making a sensible and sustainable choice to have smaller families. Despite the nation’s total population rising by 8.2 million since 2000, The Australian Bureau of Statistics reports that 15,900 fewer babies were born in the year to December 2023 than in the previous year, limiting natural population expansion to 103,900.

A fair part of Monday 6 May 2024’s Mediawatch program was an attack on Jordan Knight’s MigrationWatch organisation.
 
Barry takes great exception to its claim that “Nearly 25% of all social housing in NSW is lived in by foreign-born residents” although “refugees and asylum seekers make up only one per cent of those in social housing”.
 

The CFMEU says: Claims Australia is suffering a major shortage of tradespeople have been shot down in a major blow for bosses’ lobbyists trying to exploit and undercut workers.

A CFMEU analysis of Jobs & Skills Australia occupation and internet job advertisements data busts the myth peddled by employer groups that there is a worker shortage which must be addressed through migration.

The vast majority of building and construction-related jobs have an indicative vacancy rate below 1%.

Nobody controls immigration into Australia. If Big Australia wants to increase it, they can't. If Small Australia wants to reduce it, they can't. When John Howard said, "But we will control who comes to this country," he was lying then, and it is an even bigger lie now. 

In early 1990 I changed my name to ZPG and stood for the NSW Senate because of the big lie - that without immigration, Australia's population is declining. It was so wrong then, and it is so wrong still. But recently Nine/Fairfax/ABC/SBS/News have been revving up the old propaganda. Is the big lie propaganda being orchestrated by dark hands?

Click on the image to read Report No. 39.

Click on the image to read Report No. 38.

Basically signals Victorian State Gov attempts to remove Local Governments by stealth: Taking over Council powers without consulting the electorate. Planning is the tool. Council writing to all other Vic Councils encouraging them to stand up to State Gov similarly.

Frankston's 170th Anniversary was on the 29th of May.[1] Frankston's first official land sales were on 29 May 1854, illustrated below with a map showing the lots. The plan for the new village of Frankston was drawn by James Philp from the Office of

Of more than 200 submissions to the Australian Senate Inquiry into Australian support for Ukraine, (27March-4 Aug 24), so-far published, most seem to think that more war, with even more money and weapons, is a solution for Ukraine's problems. Almost none argue for peace-negotiations.

Georgian Prime Minister Irakli Kobakhidze has claimed that a European commissioner told him he could end up suffering the same fate as Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico, who survived an assassination attempt last week. In a Facebook post on Thursday, Kobakhidze said that the unnamed commissioner warned him during a recent phone call that the West would take “a number of measures” against him if his government pressed ahead with a law requiring foreign NGOs in Georgia to disclose their funding.

Claims by the Australian Government that the Navy was enforcing sanctions against North Korea have been heavily refuted; Australian Navy spying on Chinese Coastal defence and military exercises occurred at the behest of the USA’s Seventh Fleet; IPAN calls for the cancellation of hostile spying activities in the South China Sea

On the eve of the International Day for Biodiversity (IDB), Sustainable Population Australia (SPA) calls on governments, including our own, to  acknowledge that human population numbers and growth are primary causes of  habitat loss and, in turn, biodiversity decline.

Fürth, Germany — Animal welfare activists disrupted the Annual General Meeting (AGM) of adidas in Fürth, Germany, today with shareholders calling on corporate executives, CEO Björn Gulden and CFO Harm Ohlmeyer, to answer why the company persists in sourcing kangaroo skins even though the commercial killing of the marsupials plainly violates adidas policies on humane treatment of animals. 

Sometimes, it’s best not to leave the issue of justice to the judges. They do what they must: consult the statutes, test the rivers of power, and hope that their ruling will not be subject to appeal.

Government regulators have been notified but refused to act. Victorian National Parks Association states that conservation groups are furious after an endangered Greater Glider was found dead in a large habitat tree felled by Forest Fire Management Victoria in the Yarra Ranges National Park.

Further Update, 23 May 24 : Map included to more comprehensively show the territory that Azerbaijan has taken from Armenia since 2020. (I have not been able to locate any similar map anywhere.)

Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan remains in office in defiance of a call by Archbishop Bagrat Galstanyan for his resignation on 10 May before a massive crowd in Yerevan's Republic Square.

According to one recent report from Armenia, "The police detained citizens conducting civil disobedience in different parts of Yerevan. Among them were also the mother of 2020 Artsakh war hero Arayik Baghdasaryan and the deacon of St. Anna Church in Komitas. The total number of detainees was 48."

(This story includes an embedded 45 minute video. For reasons not clear to me, this struggle has not been reported on either Russia's RT news service nor Iran's PressTV news service.) Following the arrival of the march from the Armenian province of Tavusch to save province from annexation by neighbouring Azerbaijan, Archbishop Bagrat Gastanyan, who led that march, in his address to the assembled crowd, called for the resignation of Armenian President Nikol Pashinyan. The size of the crowd was estimated to be 100,000 . Those who have followed the history of Armenia, particularly since Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan came to power in the US-orchestrated colour revolution of 2018, will understand that this demand for the removal of Pashinyan is well overdue.

Ione Belare (pictured), Spanish Minister for Social Justice, explains that the world can and must act to stop Israel's plans to kill 1.4 million Palestinians in Rafah. Rafah is right on the southern border of the Gaza Strip next to Egypt and is home to about 1.4 million displaced Palestinians, who have taken refuge there. Israel's planned attack flies in the face of a peace agreement having been reached in Egypt between Israel and Hamas.

What you can do and how you can stay informed.

On 19 April President Ilham Aliyev of Azerbaijan demanded that neighbouring Armenia surrender to it the territory of its northen-eastern-most province of Tavush. Armenian President Nikola Pashinyan raised no objection and, once more, following a pattern of betrayals which followed his installation as President in the US-orchestrated colour revolution of 2018, acted immediately to use the forces of the Armenian state to facilitate this surrender of territory.

The United States has an appalling record of meddling in the affairs of other countries, which has often taken the form of outright invasion. The most recent example is its facilitation of Israel's known murder of more than 34,000 Palestinians in Gaza since 7 October last year. And, since he was inaugurated in January 2021, it appears that US President Joe Biden has actually overseen an organised, undeclared, invasion of his own country. Using multiple, government financed NGOs, Biden has facilitated truly massive illegal human traffic from across the globe, via the United States southern border, plus their transport throughout the country. His government has also financed airline passage for many more illegal immigrants. Estimates of how many illegal aliens now reside in the United States are in the order of 25 million. In the embedded video Redacted's Natali and Clayton and their guest J J Carrell rightly label Biden's conduct 'treason'.

(This article has been adapted from a double-sided A5 leaflet, the PDF file from which it can be printed is here.) Yesterday, on Friday 3 May, World Press Freedom Day, four members of the Bring Julian Assange Home Parliamentary Support Group (Assange Support Group) - Andrew Wilkie, Josh Wilson, David Shoebridge and Bridget Archer - issued a press release [1] in which they “urge[d] the United States to discontinue the long, expensive and punishing process that prevents Mr Assange from returning home to his family in Australia.” The press release concluded “there is no justice, compassion, or reasonable purpose in the further persecution of Julian Assange when one considers the harsh conditions of detention he has already endured.”